Vengeance: A Halloween Novella

Chapter 14

October 30, 2023

Vancouver, Canada

Matthew Tkachuk returns to where he is holding Brock Boeser as a captive. It's just in the basement of his own house in Calgary. He'd dragged Brock back to his house, where he'd kill him. As he skips down the stairs and enters the basement room, he can see Brock is eyeing him with a deadly glare. "Oh, don't look at me like that, you killed me. It's only fair now that I get back at you by killing you too."

"Where am I?" Brock spits out at him, his heart pounding against his ribcage. "And what's with the taunting and prolonging?"

Tkachuk snickers. "Well, I suppose I do owe you some answers before I end your pathetic life." He pulls up a chair and sits backwards on it, his legs straddling the back of the wood-crafted furniture.

This chair is cushioned and looks well-made, newer. It doesn't look like it is as uncomfortable as the one that Brock has been sitting in. Maybe he reserved this chair just for tying up his enemies in?

Brock vainly kicks out at the Calgary Flame.

"Oh, so close," Tkachuk teases, the smirk on his face darkening and twisting with each clock tick. "God, I love the smell of success...and...victory." He closes his eyes and tilts his head up to draw in a nice refreshing sniff of air.

Brock grunts, not liking the feeling of being like a fly stuck in a spider's web. He kicks out again, and this time, makes a hard connection with Tkachuk's shin. He grunts again with excitement.

Tkachuk howls with pain, gritting his teeth together and clutching at his shin. He might have let it slide out, closer to Brock on accident. He then lunges forward and grabs Brock roughly by his messy curly hair, wrenching him forward. He was already leaning forward toward the Flame, but Tkachuk wants him closer. There is a soft squeak as he ends up pulling the chair along with him.

Brock grunts with pain, feeling the strain and force of the bondage holding him as a hostage to the chair. As well as the sharp discomfort of his hair being pulled on his scalp. But he struggles to maintain his focused anger in the process.

Tkachuk then thrusts his head right next to his ear and hisses, "Careful who you're kicking at in the situation that you're in. I'd hate to have to take my frustrations out on you, if you're not cooperating."

Brock grits his teeth together, biting back on the pain coming from his scalp. "How can I?" His voice comes out harsher than he intended. "You tied me to a chair! An uncomfortable wooden one, not even a nice sofa or anything!"

"You'd better stop kicking at me," Tkachuk sneers.

"I thought you liked Petey?!" Brock suddenly blurts out.

Tkachuk freezes and his smugness fades away momentarily. "What did you say to me, Canuck?" His voice now has an edge to it, low and threatening.

Brock can feel the tightness of the ropes as they hold strong. This is no time to be scared senseless! The Canuck forward tries to calm his racing heart and ignore the sharp pain from his hair being pulled. "I thought you liked Petey? Elias Pettersson? You know, my friend, the one you brutally killed because you think you hate him?"

"I know who HE is!" Tkachuk snarls and releases Brock's hair from his grip finally. "Why should I tell you my reasons? I've NEVER been interested in Elias Pettersson...a Calgary Flame could NEVER like a Vancouver Canuck!"

Tkachuk gets up from the chair. He walks away from Brock for a split second, grabbing something in the dark shadows beyond the light source. The light is too bright in his face and too dark beyond to be able to see what Tkachuk is doing or grabbing.